This application claims the priority of French Patent Document No. 0103818, filed Mar. 21, 2001, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to equipment enabling a vehicle to manipulate a load such as a dumpster provided with a lifting bar on its front face.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Loadhandling equipment that includes a deformable and tilting handling arm provided at one end with a hook adapted to be interengaged with the lifting bar on the load is known in the art, in particular from patent application FR 2 109 109 A. In a transport position, the handling arm has a front section disposed at the front end of the equipment and oriented vertically or substantially vertically with the hook at the top and a longitudinal section oriented horizontally or substantially horizontally with a first end connected to the base of the front section and a second end adapted to be articulated to the rear of the vehicle about a transverse pivot axis. The longitudinal section is formed by a link having a first end articulated about the transverse rear pivot axis and by a first branch of a bracket, whose second branch forms the front section. The first branch of the bracket has its end opposite the front section articulated to the second end of the link about a transverse intermediate pivot axis. The first branch of the bracket is telescopic and has a deployed position in which its length is a maximum and a retracted position in which its length is a minimum. The first branch is deployed in the transport position mentioned above. In addition to this position, the handling arm can assume:
a putting down on the ground or picking up position, in which the hook is to the rear of the vehicle at a height enabling it to be interengaged with or released from the lifting bar of a load of the type mentioned above, resting on the ground, the movement between the transport position and the putting down on the ground or picking up position being effected initially by the movement of the first branch of the bracket from its deployed position to its retracted position, followed by pivoting of the bracket by a tilting actuator about its articulation with the link, the latter remaining fixed; and
a tipping position, to which the hook moves from the transport position by being pivoted upwardly and rearwardly about the transverse rear pivot axis by the tilting actuator, the arm retaining during this pivoting movement the same configuration as in the transport position.
Also known in the art are variants of the arrangement of the longitudinal section of the arm and the manner in which it is deformed between the transport position and the putting down on the ground or picking up position, in particular as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,948, in which the bracket pivots relative to the link until it reaches a predetermined angle, from which it is abutted against the link, these two members then pivoting together about the transverse rear pivot axis, or as disclosed in patent application FR 2 169 810 A, in which the telescopic first branch of the bracket is replaced by a front end portion of the first branch that can be raised to retract the hook. Some equipment combines a bracket and a link operating as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,948 with a bracket whose first branch is telescopic and/or has an end portion that can be raised, respectively as described in the document FR 2 109 109 A and in the document FR 2 169 810 A.
The invention aims to provide equipment of the same kind but which is more convenient and more economic.
To this end the invention proposes equipment enabling a vehicle to put down on the ground or to pick up a load such as a dumpster and to tip the load, which has a lifting bar on a front face, the equipment including a deformable and tilting handling arm provided at one end with a hook adapted to interengage with the lifting bar of the load and adapted to assume the following positions:
a transport position in which a front section is disposed at the front end of the equipment and oriented vertically or substantially vertically with the hook at the top and a longitudinal section is disposed to the rear of the front section and oriented horizontally or substantially horizontally with the front end of the longitudinal section connected to the base of the front section;
a putting down on the ground or picking up position in which the hook is to the rear of the vehicle at a height enabling it to be interengaged with or released from the lifting bar of the load resting on the ground; and
a tipping position to which the hook moves from the transport position by being pivoting upwardly and rearwardly by a tilting actuator about a transverse pivot axis situated to the rear of the equipment;
in which equipment the transverse rear pivot axis is downwardly spaced from the longitudinal section of the handling arm.
This offset, which does not exist in conventional equipment, where the pivot axis is at the rear end of the longitudinal section, offers the advantage of being able to use a tilting actuator having both a small section and a small inclination to the horizontal in the transport position.
The height of the portion of the equipment in accordance with the invention that is below the load can therefore be smaller than in conventional equipment. A vehicle equipped with equipment according to the invention therefore handles better when transporting a load because its overall center of gravity is lower, with the additional benefit of a reduction in the height of obstacles under which it can pass.
What is more, for the same flowrate from the hydraulic power unit, the smaller section of the tilting actuator produces a higher speed and thus saves time in handling a load.
The reason why the offset proposed by the invention between the longitudinal section of the handling arm and the transverse rear pivot axis minimizes both the section and the inclination of the tilting actuator is that, in the transport position, in which, because of overall size constraints, the tilting actuator must be at substantially the same level as the longitudinal section of the handling arm, this offset enables the actuator to have a long lever arm with respect to the transverse rear pivot axis when its inclination to the horizontal, and to be more precise, its upward and rearward inclination, is particularly small.
Note that in conventional equipment either the tilting actuator has a small inclination, so that there is only a short lever arm and it is necessary to employ a powerful and therefore large-diameter actuator, consequently increasing the height of the equipment, or, to use an actuator of smaller section, the actuator has a relatively large inclination, which also increases the height of the equipment.
The offset proposed by the invention between the longitudinal section of the handling arm and the transverse rear pivot axis also offers the advantage of enabling the rear of the vehicle to be fitted with an underride guard that projects a relatively great distance toward the rear without constituting an obstacle to the load on moving from the transport position to the tipping position.
This is because, during this movement, each point on the longitudinal section of the handling arm follows a circular arc trajectory centered on the transverse rear pivot axis, which is spaced from that longitudinal section, so that the latter not only performs an upward and rearward tilting movement, but also an offsetting movement, in particular toward the rear, thanks to which the underride guard can be placed further to the rear than in conventional equipment in which the load does not perform any such offsetting movement.
In accordance with preferred features, the handling arm has a rear section which, in the transport position, is disposed to the rear of the longitudinal section and oriented vertically or substantially vertically with the top of the rear section connected to the rear of the longitudinal section, the means for articulation of the arm about the transverse rear pivot axis being disposed at the base of the rear section.
Providing a rear section of this kind is of particular practical benefit for implementing the invention.
A rear section of this kind can easily be disposed to the rear of the chassis frame of the vehicle, for example.
Note that in this case, the transverse rear pivot axis is further to the rear than the chassis frame of the vehicle, and therefore further to the rear than would be the corresponding axis of conventional equipment, which increases the lever arm available to the tilting actuator and the possibility of positioning toward the rear an underride guard, if any.
The handling arm preferably has at the junction between the longitudinal section and the rear section two rollers adapted to support respective longitudinal rails situated on a righthand side and a lefthand side of a bottom face of the load.
Because these support rollers are part of the handling arm, they also pivot about the transverse rear pivot axis on movement from the transport position to the tipping position.
This offers the advantage, compared to a solution in which the rollers are fixed, that there is no need for a member for supporting the rear end of the load to take over from the rollers during movement from the transport position to the tipping position.
In accordance with other preferred features, the equipment includes a frame having an L-shaped profile, a first branch of which is adapted to come onto the chassis frame of the vehicle and whose second branch projects downward from the first branch and includes means for articulating the handling arm about the transverse rear pivot axis.
A frame of this kind makes it particularly convenient to implement the invention, and in particular enables the equipment to be installed simply by fixing the frame to the chassis frame of the vehicle.
Note also, and most importantly, that any accessories to be disposed at the rear of the vehicle, and in particular an underride guard or a strut that comes into contact with the ground, can be mounted directly on the second branch of the frame, i.e. directly on the equipment itself, which saves time when installing the equipment on the vehicle, compared to conventional equipment where these accessories must be fixed to the chassis frame of the vehicle after fixing the frame of the equipment to the chassis frame.
A second aspect of the invention provides a vehicle equipped with the equipment described above, with its transverse rear pivot axis to the rear of and lower than the side members of the chassis frame of the vehicle.
The invention also provides a vehicle equipped with equipment as described above having a frame with an L-shaped profile in which the first branch of the frame is on top of the side members of the chassis frame of the vehicle and the upper portion of the second branch is against the rear of said side members of the chassis frame.
Preferably, for reasons of simplicity, convenience and economy:
there is a chamfer between an upper face and a rear face of the side members, the chamfer being flanked by a junction between the branches of the frame; and/or
an angle-bracket disposed between a side member and a leg of the frame is fixed to a lateral wall of a side member of the chassis frame of the vehicle.
The disclosure of the invention continues now with the following description of embodiments of the invention, which description is given by way of illustrative and non-limiting example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings.